The Place You're In
by MayMarie
Summary: Ten years later Casey's pregnant, too scared to tell Derek, Lizzie and Edwin are on the brink of a new relationship, and Marti's choice in lovers is bound to shock everyone. Now everyone's home under the same roof for Christmas. No way is this going well!
1. Happy?

Official summary that's too long to put on the stories page: Ten years later all five of the Venturi/MacDonald children are facing pivotal moments that will change their lives forever. Casey finds herself pregnant, too scared to tell Derek and too scared to confide in her family that they are together. Lizzie and Edwin are one the brink of a new relationship after a drunken night together. Edwin's ready to jump in with both feet, but first he must convince Lizzie to stop avoiding him while she tries to figure out if a relationship with Edwin is what she wants. And Marti? Well, her choice in lovers is bound to shake things up. She is a Venturi after all. And of course, it wouldn't be Life With Derek if everyone wasn't back home under the same roof for the Christmas holidays.

Disclaimer: I don't own this. This applies to the rest of the story as well.

The chapter title is a song by Mudvayne off their album Lost And Found. The story title is a song/album by Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

--

**Happy?**

Twenty five year old Casey MacDonald paced impatiently from one side of the small bathroom in her one bedroom apartment to the other, waiting for the timer to ding. How long did it take for five minutes to pass anyway? By the time two minutes had passed, she'd decided that the bathroom was far too small to pace adequately. This situation called for some serious pacing that could just not be done in the bathroom. No, Casey definitely needed to be pacing in the living room.

Once in the living room, she set the timer down on the coffee table and continued her pacing. Casey's impatient pacing was quickly replaced by tidying up the already practically spotless living room. She needlessly straightened the pile of Derek's hockey magazines that were sitting next to the timer on the coffee table. Next she turned her attention to the CD rack, which held numerous CDs that were both hers and Derek's but had long since mixed together to become "their" CDs. She made sure that all of the CDs were lined up neatly in their slots before deciding that her attempts to clean were futile. An activity that usually calmed her nerves and made things seem like they were spinning less out of control did nothing to soothe her tonight. With a minute left on the timer, she grabbed Derek's University of Toronto sweatshirt that was draped over the back of the couch, slipped it over her head and resigned herself to sitting on the couch to wait out the last minute on the timer.

Casey could barely wrap her mind around the whole situation. She was alone in her apartment and taking a pregnancy test at 3:00am. She'd never pictured herself in this position again. She'd always figured that the next time she thought she was pregnant, she'd be married and her husband would be holding her hand and they'd both have their fingers crossed waiting for a positive response. She mentally added that it would have been at a decent hour as well, as long as she was imagining the ideal circumstances to be taking a pregnancy test. Needless to say, none of the above applied to her life at the moment. She wasn't married, and she didn't know if the reason she was crossing her fingers was because she wanted the test to be positive or negative.

It had started innocently. She'd woken up one morning two weeks ago feeling sick. It didn't even cross her mind that she might have been pregnant. Why would it? It was the middle of December and on any given day around this time, at least one of her students would have been out sick. It had been that way every one of the past three years that she had been teaching high school English. Derek said it was the same at his school too. She'd shaken off the nausea, downed a glass of orange juice for breakfast and grabbed a can of chicken noodle soup to make for lunch that day during her prep period. No big deal. A week later she'd just figured that she'd caught a particularly stubborn cold virus and upped her vitamin C intake.

Her doctor had taken her off the pill for a few weeks, but she and Derek had immediately started using condoms. She still hadn't really made the connection that she could be pregnant. By the time her period was three days late, panicked thoughts had filled her brain. What if they'd slipped and forgotten a condom once? Or what if one had broken on them and neither of them had realized? She's been so worried that she'd been having trouble sleeping. After hours of tossing and turning and worrying, she got out of bed, threw on a jacket, grabbed her car keys and headed towards the nearest store that was open at that time where she could get a pregnancy test.

The timer beeped, jolting Casey out of her thoughts and rudely bringing her back to reality. She was immediately overcome with an intense desire to throw the damn pregnancy test out of the living room window. She suddenly had no desire to see what was written in that tiny little window. Ignorance was bliss, right? If she didn't look, she'd never know and she'd never have to deal with this, right? Except that she would, and that was what the little voice in her head kept telling her. She gathered up every ounce of the courage she had and looked at the stick. There it was, clear as day.

Casey MacDonald was pregnant.

She immediately burst into tears. Why? She still couldn't figure it out. Was she happy she was pregnant? Maybe. But it was also entirely possible that this was the last thing she wanted. Casey wasn't ready to try to interpret why she was feeling what she was feeling. She'd gotten over one emotional hurdle tonight and that was enough for her. She let herself drop to the floor, her back pressed up against the couch with her knees up to her chin and sobbed.

Somehow, she'd managed to get to her bedroom and fall into a fitful sleep. She was sure she hadn't stopped crying by the time she'd drifted off and when she woke up the next morning there was a pile of tissues crumpled next to her on the bed. She was grateful that today was Saturday and that she wouldn't have to work. She didn't think that she could handle teaching all of her classes today. It was all she could do to get up and make herself a cup of coffee. She'd been hoping that some sleep would make things seem less intimidating, but she apparently wasn't that lucky.

After a cup of coffee, she picked up her phone and called Tanya, her old college roommate and one of her best friends. Truth be told, Casey would rather have called Emily or her sister, but Emily lived two hours away now and her sister was about to start finals and dealing with her overly hormonal big sister probably wasn't on Lizzie's End-Of-Semester To Do list. Not that there was anything wrong with Tanya, it was just that Casey had known her sister and Emily for a whole lot longer.

"Hello?" Mumbled a very groggy Tanya. Casey quickly glanced at a clock and saw that it was barely after 7:00am. Casey hadn't realized how early it was.

"Sorry Tanya, I didn't realize how early it was." Apologized Casey. Casey's scratchy voice was all it took to wake Tanya up.

"Casey, you sound terrible. What's wrong?"

"Can you come over?" Asked Casey, grateful to hear the concern in her friend's voice.

"Be there in twenty minutes." Promised Tanya.

True to her word, Tanya walked into Casey's apartment twenty minutes later. She took one look at Casey, saw her red eyes and wrapped her in a hug. Casey handed her a cup of coffee and the two girls settled into the living room.

"What happened? Did you and Derek have a fight?" Asked Tanya, taking note of the fact that Derek was not currently in Casey's apartment, where he could usually be found.

Casey shook her head. "We're fine. Derek's at an away hockey game until tomorrow afternoon." Casey was silent for a few moments before deciding to just spit it out. "I'm pregnant." It was easier to say out loud than she thought it would be. Tanya's face changed from one of concern to excitement and back to concern.

"This is a good thing, isn't it?"

"I don't know." Confessed Casey. "I don't know anything right now."

"What does Derek think?"

"I haven't told him yet. I mean, what if he reacts like he did last time? I'm not sure I could handle that."

In their senior year of college, Casey and Derek had had a pregnancy scare and Derek had not taken it well. He'd completely disappeared for a day when Casey first told him that she might be pregnant and when he did resurface, he'd made it clear that he did not want a child. But he'd held her hand while she waited for the test results and both had been equally relieved when it came back negative. Things were rocky between them for awhile, but they'd made it through everything together.

"Casey, that was three years ago. A lot of things have changed since then. Have you talked to your mom?"

"I. . .I can't talk to her. Not yet anyway. There's too many questions that she would ask that I can't answer right now. She and George don't know anything about me and Derek." The only people in their family that knew about the relationship were Lizzie and Edwin, and that was because they lived in the same city and it would have been impossible to hide the relationship indefinitely from the two family snoops.

A few tears escaped from Casey's eyes even though she felt like she'd cried every tear possible and Tanya wrapped Casey in another hug.

"I just don't know what to do."

--

**Author's Note:** Well, I hope you liked it. I'm going to apologize in advance for a lapse in updates for a few reasons. 1) I work all day tomorrow and will have no time to update. 2) Day after that I get my wisdom teeth out and fully plan on sleeping the whole day away and then being loopy on pain killers for the next two days 3) I work 36 hours the week after and 4) I have only a rough idea of where this is going so I'd like to get a better story line established before I post more.

Let me know what you think and what you'd like to see.


	2. What's The Story Morning Glory?

Official summary that's too long to put on the stories page: Ten years later all five of the Venturi/MacDonald children are facing pivotal moments that will change their lives forever. Casey finds herself pregnant, too scared to tell Derek and too scared to confide in her family that they are together. Lizzie and Edwin are one the brink of a new relationship after a drunken night together. Edwin's ready to jump in with both feet, but first he must convince Lizzie to stop avoiding him while she tries to figure out if a relationship with Edwin is what she wants. And Marti? Well, her choice in lovers is bound to shake things up. She is a Venturi after all. And of course, it wouldn't be Life With Derek if everyone wasn't back home under the same roof for the Christmas holidays.

Disclaimer: Previous statements apply.

This time the title comes from an Oasis album.

**(What's The Story) Morning Glory?**

The morning of her last final of the semester, twenty one year old Lizzie MacDonald woke up to the incessant chirping of her cell phone alarm. She mentally cursed her decision to choose the most annoying ringtone her phone came with to serve as her alarm clock. She blindly swung her hand in the general direction of her desk, hoping that she'd somehow manage to find her phone and hit the snooze button before she was fully conscious. Her hand swiped through air.

Two facts managed to register in her brain, despite the fact that she was still half asleep. One, she wasn't in her own bed. And two, she most definitely was not alone. A warm body was pressed up against her back and there was also an arm resting securely around her waist. Lizzie did the only thing that came to mind. She froze. Her mind raced through all of her possible options. She'd never woken up next to anyone before, let alone had to extract herself from a sleeping boy's arms without waking him. Was she supposed to pretend to still be asleep until he woke up? Let him make the first move? He was, after all, in a better position to move considering that he didn't have another set of arms wrapped around his body. Was she supposed to risk it and detangle herself from his arms and pray not to wake him up. Or would she be well within her rights to wake him up?

She was just about to snuggle back into the blankets (it was December in Canada after all, and she was comfortably warm) and pretend to be asleep until he woke up when she heard him mumble, his voice unrecognizable and still thick with sleep.

"Make it stop."

With a start, Lizzie realized that she still hadn't managed to find her phone and turn off the annoying alarm. Somehow, in her semi-panic she'd managed to tune it out. Obviously she'd had other, more pressing matters on her hands.

"Trying." She groaned. Lizzie forced herself to open her eyes, thinking that it would help her find her phone faster. Searches were generally more successful when one could see what they were searching for, at least in her previous experiences. The second that her eyes popped open, she was greeted with the blinding morning sun streaming in through a dorm room window. She slammed her eyes shut as one more fact became apparent.

She was horribly hung over.

Despite the ice picks she could have sworn were being stabbed into her brain, she forced herself to get up and find her phone just so that she could make that incessant chirping stop. It was way too early for incessant chirping.

In her jacket pocket, that was where her phone was most likely to be. In fact, she was almost certain that was where she'd left it. Now, she just needed to find her jacket. She let her eyes slide open a fraction of an inch in an attempt to see where she was searching while still keeping out as much of the sun as possible. There it was, her jacket was hanging on the back of a desk chair. She stuffed her hand into a pocket and disabled the alarm as quickly as possible.

"Oh thank god you stopped it. I am too hung over for that."

Lizzie dropped her phone onto the desk and turned around to see Edwin pushing himself into a sitting position. Lizzie could see that he wasn't wearing a shirt and instead he'd fallen asleep still wearing his jeans from the day before. Half way to sitting up, he'd decided that it wasn't worth the effort and let his arm collapse beneath his weight, sending his body crashing down against the mattress once again. He groaned as his head hit the pillow, obviously regretting the sudden movement.

"Moving is definitely not an option for now." Edwin mumbled into his pillow.

"Oh my god." Gasped Lizzie as the previous night's events came flying back to her. Before now, she'd been too focused on turning off her alarm and too groggy from recently waking up for last night's memories to hit her. But now those memories hit her full force and she was definitely embarrassed.

"Oh my god." She repeated. "I. . . I have to go." She stammered, an intense need to get the hell out of there overriding anything else she had been feeling before, including the stabbing pains behind her eyes due to her hangover.

She scrambled to grab her cell phone and her winter jacket. After a quick glance downward, she realized that she was only wearing her jeans and a tank top. She had definitely been wearing a blouse over the tank top when she'd arrived at Edwin's room the night before. Her eyes frantically swept the tiny dorm room in search of her blouse. She didn't see it anywhere. It wasn't on the floor or draped over a chair and it hadn't gotten thrown onto Edwin's roommate's bed either. (She made a mental note to remember where her clothing got thrown from now on). Instead of searching harder for her blouse (she didn't really even like it that much), she shoved her arms into her jacket and started to shove her feet into her tennis shoes, not bothering to undo the laces like she normally would.

"Lizzie, where are you going?" Asked Edwin, finally opening his eyes to see what Lizzie was doing.

"This. . . this is too weird. I have to. . . I just have to go."

Lizzie was halfway to the door when she heard Edwin throw his blanket aside and jump out of bed. Seconds later she felt his hand on her arm. Despite the fact that every instinct she had was screaming for her to leave, she paused and turned to face Edwin.

"You don't have to leave."

"I have a final today." She protested.

"Not for like eight more hours." Edwin countered. "You have to be as hung over as I am. Stay. Sleep it off for a few more hours. Just crawl back into bed with me and stay. Please." He pleaded with her.

Lizzie almost gave in to him. Her head _was_ killing her and it _was_ incredibly early and she had to admit that Edwin's bed looked inviting. But she couldn't bring herself to stay.

"I can't. It's too weird right now. I have to go."

"Why? Why is it weird? Because we finally gave in to what's always been there?" Over the years, it had become apparent to both of them that they didn't truly see each other as siblings and there were definitely feelings stronger than friendship between the two of them. They had never actually acknowledged their feelings for each other, but they both knew they were there nonetheless. In high school, both were reluctant to bring their current boyfriend or girlfriend to the house and on the rare occasion they did, the other was conveniently absent or quick to make themselves scarce. Despite the fact that they both knew these feelings existed, neither had acted on them. Until the night before, at least. "Do you think that Derek and Casey's relationship is weird?"

"They're different." Lizzie answered quietly.

"How are they different from us? Why is this so weird for you?"

"I don't know, okay? I just don't know. This is too much for me to handle right now." She shrugged his hand off her arm. "This isn't the least bit weird to you?" She wondered.

"No. It couldn't be more right." He replied. But his answer fell on deaf ears. Lizzie had already left.

"Thanks for agreeing to the last minute change in plans." Lizzie thanked her sister a few days later. The four oldest Venturi/MacDonald children were on their way home for the Christmas holidays. In Lizzie and Edwin's case, they were heading home for most of January since their spring semester didn't start until the end of that month and all of the on campus dorms were closed until then. Casey and Derek were only planning on staying until New Year's day because their classes were going to start up much sooner than the University's.

Because Lizzie and Edwin were going home for such a long stretch of time, they were both bringing home the majority of their things. Consequently, they'd need both Derek's and Casey's cars. The original plan was for Derek and Casey to drive to their siblings' dorms and load their bags into the cars. Edwin and Lizzie had originally planned on driving home in one car while Casey and Derek drove home in the other, taking advantage of the last bit of alone time they'd most likely be able to have until after the holidays. Once they were at the Venturi/MacDonald home, they'd have to go back to being step-siblings and step-siblings only.

That morning, Lizzie had called Casey and asked if they could ride together instead. Casey had readily agreed as Lizzie had assumed she would. She knew something was up between Casey and Derek, but didn't have the slightest clue as to what it was.

"It's no problem, Liz. What kind of sister would I be otherwise?"

"Horrible. You'd be a horrible older sister. Refusing to give up time with your boyfriend and all." Lizzie rolled her eyes to let Casey know that she was just joking. "Speaking of, why were you so eager to give up this time with Derek. I thought for sure that I would have needed to ask more than once." She may have assumed that Casey would give in, but hadn't assumed that it would be so easy.

"So, why are you avoiding Edwin?" Asked Casey, not bothering to pretend she didn't know what Lizzie was talking about. They were too close for something like that to work. She knew that Lizzie could tell that there was something going on with her and Derek, just like Lizzie knew that Casey could tell that she was avoiding Edwin. Neither sister would try to deny anything.

"It's complicated." Replied Lizzie. (Just because she wouldn't deny it didn't mean she wanted to actually talk about it).

"Try me. I'm pretty smart."

"Only if you tell me what's going on with you and Derek."

Casey nodded her consent.

"Edwin and I kind of spent the night together." Lizzie confessed quickly. "We were drinking and one thing led to another and we were kissing. I don't even remember who made the first move."

"And now you're avoiding him." Said Casey, starting to understand.

"Yeah, pretty much. I woke up and got the hell out of there as soon as I could. It was too weird."

"What's so weird about it?"

"He's my step brother."

"Derek's my step brother too and look at us." Shrugged Casey. "Take the step sibling thing out of the equation. Pretend Edwin was just some random guy you met and became friends with. If this happened with that Edwin, would it be so weird?"

Lizzie was silent for a long time before she finally answered.

"I don't think it would be." She realized. She knew without a doubt that she cared about Edwin. She had known for some time now, but had been too afraid to admit it.

"So stop avoiding him then. Talk to him. Figure out if you think you two are worth a shot. If you think you'll look back at any time and wonder what would have been, then go for it."

After another stretch of silence, Lizzie spoke again.

"Okay, so a deal's a deal. Why are you avoiding Derek?"

"What gives, Edwin?" Derek demanded, lacking the tact that Casey did. He preferred to get right to the point. "There had better be a good reason I'm stuck in a car with you instead of enjoying some alone time with my girlfriend?" On the drive home, Derek had fully planned on pulling off onto a back road and having his way with Casey one last time before they arrived at their parents' house for a little over a week, where it wasn't guaranteed that he'd be able to do that again until they got home.

"Lizzie and I spent the night together." Edwin said. He knew better than to try and be vague when Derek was in a mood like this. "And now she's avoiding me."

"Dude, was the sex really that bad for her?" Asked Derek. Edwin wasn't sure if Derek was joking or not. For all he knew, it could be both. Either way, Edwin wasn't in the mood to have a sex talk with his brother.

"Get your mind out of the gutter." Ordered an unsmiling Edwin. "And help me!"

"Get better in the sack." Joked Derek, earning himself another glare from Edwin.

"We didn't sleep together." Edwin knew that Derek would keep bringing it up until Edwin told him exactly what happened and Edwin really didn't wanna sit through a two hour car ride with Derek insulting his bedroom skills. "Now be serious!"

"Okay fine. I'll be serious. She's freaked out. You don't wanna deal with a girl when she's freaked. It's basically the same as trying to deal with a girl while she's crying. Let her calm down and come to you if you insist on talking to her."

Edwin knew that was the last of the serious advice that he was going to get from Derek. Edwin could accept that Lizzie was freaked out. That much had been obvious from the moment they woke up together, but he wasn't sure he was willing to wait around for Lizzie to come to him. He was going to talk to Lizzie at the first chance he got. Apologize for freaking her out (even though he really didn't think he needed to), and then beg for her to give them a chance. He knew without a doubt that he needed to know if there was anything between them.

Sooner than any of the Venturi/MacDonald kids were prepared for, they turned onto the familiar street. Derek pulled his car into the driveway and a few moments later Casey pulled hers in next to his. All four kids started grabbing bags and boxes from the trunks to bring into the house.

"You know, I think this might go faster if Lizzie and Edwin stay out here and unload the car while Derek and I bring it into the house." Suggested Casey. Actually, she figured their task would be done faster if they all carried whatever boxes they grabbed into the house, but she needed an excuse to leave Lizzie and Edwin alone.

"Speak for yourself. None of this is mine. I'm going inside to relax. Ed can unpack his own stuff."

"Well, then at least take a box inside as you go." Casey shoved a heavy cardboard box into his arms before he had a chance to protest and grabbed one for herself. She didn't care if Derek helped or not at the moment. As long as he left Lizzie and Edwin alone to talk, she was happy. She actually had no intention of coming back outside until Lizzie and Edwin were talking.

"Hey Casey!" Lizzie called after her. "Remember what I told you."

"Will do, Liz."

Casey and Derek were almost inside the house when George and Nora came outside to greet their children. Nora wrapped Casey in a hug despite the big box between them. She did the same thing for Derek and then headed towards the end of the driveway to hug Edwin and Lizzie, frantically asking questions about the end of their semester, the drive back, and anything else she could think of. She was obviously excited to have all of her children home at the same time. Casey saw Lizzie sigh and knew that she was disappointed about not being able to talk to Edwin immediately. By the end of the car ride, Casey could tell that Lizzie was eager to talk things out with Edwin now.

It looked like their conversation was just going to have to wait awhile.

**Author's Note:** I feel like this last part was rushed. I was ready to get chapter 2 posted since it had been 2 weeks since chapter 1, but in order to do that, I had to finish it. So I stayed up until 4am with a pounding headache to get this out to you.

Thank you for all the wonderful reviews that I've gotten so far. And they were all positive! And thanks to everyone that put me on a favorites or alert list! That's just as good as getting a review. I tried to thank everyone who reviewed, but if I missed you I'm sorry.

Also, thank you for putting up with my 2 weeks lapse in posting. I'm writing as fast as I can whenever I find the time, but I've got another 34 hour work week coming up, as well as my 21st birthday.


	3. Interstate Love Song

Disclaimer: Previous statements apply

Disclaimer: Previous statements apply.

Official summary that's too long to put on the stories page: Ten years later all five of the Venturi/MacDonald children are facing pivotal moments that will change their lives forever. Casey finds herself pregnant, too scared to tell Derek and too scared to confide in her family that they are together. Lizzie and Edwin are one the brink of a new relationship after a drunken night together. Edwin's ready to jump in with both feet, but first he must convince Lizzie to stop avoiding him while she tries to figure out if a relationship with Edwin is what she wants. And Marti? Well, her choice in lovers is bound to shake things up. She is a Venturi after all. And of course, it wouldn't be Life With Derek if everyone wasn't back home under the same roof for the Christmas holidays.

--

**Interstate Love Song**

At sixteen years old, Marti Venturi was clearly related to both Edwin and Derek. She'd been blessed with Edwin's brains and Derek's attitude toward life, but she'd managed to add her own personal touch to the mix, instead of just imitating her two oldest brothers. She was well known at Thompson High, even before she officially set foot in the building as a student. She was a Venturi after all, and naturally Derek had refused to let anyone with his name be unpopular. But she'd also proven that she deserved that reputation.

Marti's grades rivaled Edwin's. She almost effortlessly earned straight A's, only bothering to really put an effort into her studies if an upcoming test or project counted for a significant part of her grade. Otherwise she let the pieces fall where they may. Like Derek, Marti chose not to settle down with one boyfriend. Instead, she liked to keep her options open and make plans on a date by date basis. And just like Derek, she could always find someone more than willing to take her out for the night.

But unlike her brothers, Marti was not defined by either of these characteristics. She didn't care to spend her free time observing the people around her and taking extensive notes the way that Edwin had. And if Marti had to spend a Saturday night at home without a date, so be it.

Marti was more of the free spirited artistic type, and if it hadn't been for the Venturi name, she was sure that most people in the school would have written her off as a freak and relegated her to the back corner of the cafeteria by the garbage cans where the rest of the freaks sat within the first week of high school. The first thing that anyone noticed about Marti Venturi was her slightly unconventional wardrobe, not necessarily in fashion but definitely not out of style either. The closest she could come to classifying it was bohemian chic. She tended to wear clothing a step up from casual and was rarely ever seen in jeans, tennis shoes, and sweatshirts unless she was lounging around home. Her wardrobe also included a touch of her artistic side, just enough to set her apart from the crowd without making her look ridiculous. Her outfits were almost always accented with large hoop earring and bangle bracelets. She still loved the color purple and illustrated that with vibrant streaks in her dark hair and her fingernails were almost always painted to match.

Instead of trying to follow in her brothers' footsteps at Thompson High, she had carved out a niche for herself within the drama department, easily earning herself decent sized roles in every single one of the school's productions. No one in her family had been surprised when she'd gotten into acting, especially considering how much of her youth was spent pretending to be a cat. It was undeniable that Marti had become a full fledged drama geek by the end of grade nine.

On the last day of school before Christmas vacation, in true Venturi style, Marti decided that it wasn't worth her time to go to some of her more boring classes. It wasn't like either the students or the teachers were planning on getting anything important done. Everyone was too full of sugar from all the candy canes and Christmas cookies the people had brought in to share to even consider trying to sit still for a fifty minute class period. Marti was fairly certain that if any of her teachers were foolish enough to try to teach new material, they'd just end up re-teaching the same lesson when everyone returned to school in January.

Marti would have preferred to leave campus for the rest of the day, but she had every intention of making it to her drama and Spanish classes. Drama was just plain fun and it was almost always guaranteed to be a good time, while her Spanish class was watching Shrek in Spanish and she could definitely handle almost an hour of sitting in the dark and doing nothing. Unfortunately, both of those classes came after lunch, so she'd have to stick around on campus for the rest of the day and just hope that she didn't get caught skipping by any teachers.

She expertly made her way through the hallway, crowded with kids slowly trying to make it to their next class, and headed toward the school's auditorium. The place was her home away from home. Her sanctuary. She just plain loved the place. Today, the curtain was up and the stage was littered with half painted set pieces for their next performance.

Down on the stage, Marti could see a blonde girl kneeling on the ground in front of one of the set pieces. She was still too far away to tell who it was, but Marti was almost certain that it was Kayla Manning. Marti quickly made it to the stage and saw that she'd been right. Marti kneeled down next to her and draped her arm across Kayla's back in hello.

"Thought I'd find you here, babe." Greeted Marti. She knew that Kayla had study hall this period. Technically it wasn't a free period and she was supposed to be in a classroom, but Kayla viewed that as more of a suggestion than anything else. And Marti knew that.

"Took you long enough." Laughed Kayla, though she had only gotten there ten minutes earlier than Marti. Marti grabbed a paint brush and got to work on the same section of the set that Kayla was working on.

"I had a test in my last class and then numerous text messages from my brother asking if I'd talked to Casey, Lizzie or Edwin recently because apparently they're all crazy and he doesn't know what's going on." Consequently, she'd spent seven minutes on the phone with him trying to convince him that she didn't have a clue what anyone was thinking. She'd eventually given up on convincing him and said that she'd see him when they all got home later that day. "You are so lucky you're an only child."

"We can trade anytime." Offered Kayla.

"Trust me, you don't want my siblings. If you didn't know them the way I did, you'd say they were seriously screwed up." Sighed Marti.

"Oh yeah? How so?"

"Well for starters, my oldest brother Derek is dating our stepsister Casey. Of course, our families merged when they were both fifteen so I seriously doubt they ever saw each other as siblings." Marti hurried to explain, lest Kayla get the wrong idea about her family. "Although, I don't think I'm supposed to know that they're together. And now Derek says that Edwin and Lizzie are in some kind of fight and neither of them will admit it or something like that. It's enough to drive a girl crazy."

"Well, good thing you got me to keep you sane." Replied Kayla.

"Is it wrong to hope that everything will blow up while they're all home so I can have a front row seat for all the drama?" Asked Marti, only half joking.

"Not at all. Especially if you invite me over for it." Marti promised her that if anything interesting was going to happen, she'd definitely give Kayla a call.

"Hey Kay? You've got something on the tip of your nose." Kayla raised her hand to brush away whatever it was and the looked back to Marti for confirmation. "Here, I got it." Said Marti, motioning for Kayla to lean closer. As Kayla did so, Marti quickly drew her hand holding the paintbrush through the air to leave a bright red dot of paint on Kayla's nose before she even realized what had happened.

Marti grinned evilly.

"Oh yeah? Well, you've got a little bit of red right here." Said Kayla, quickly drawing her own paintbrush across Marti's cheek, leaving a bright red streak in its path. The next few minutes were spent trying to mark the other person with a much paint as possible. Marti and Kayla sunk to the ground in giggles, trying to scrub the paint off their clothes and arms. But without any water to scrub with, they only managed to spread the paint around a bit.

"You've got some green in your hair." Marti pointed out, still trying to control her giggles. Kayla raised her left hand to her hair to see if there was any hope of getting the paint out of her hair. "No, wrong side. Here, I've got it." Said Marti as she leaned forward, closer to Kayla.

The paint was still wet to the touch so Marti figured there was very little they could do to get the paint out at that moment without actually rinsing her hair.

"Come on, I can wash it out in the bathroom." Said Kayla as she pushed herself into a standing position. She extended a hand to pull Marti up as well, which she gladly took. Once Marti was standing however, Kayla didn't drop her hand. Instead, she pulled Marti closer to her so they were a fraction of an inch apart.

"We should probably wait for the bell to ring." Suggested Marti, trying to catch her breath a little bit. "No use getting caught skipping."

"Probably a good idea." Agreed Kayla before closing the gap between them and kissing Marti full on the lips. Eventually they were forced to pull apart, their need for oxygen overpowering their need for each other.

"Took you long enough to do that." Said Marti lightly once she'd taken a few deep breaths of oxygen. There was no need to raise their voices much beyond a whisper. The room was practically silent and their faces were still only centimeters apart. Marti's fingers lazily played with a lock of Kayla's hair. "Girl could get old waiting for you to get the hint." Marti gently teased.

"I make the first move plenty." Kayla insisted.

"Prove it." Marti challenged, her voice never losing the teasing quality but also making it clear that she was waiting for some sort of proof.

Kayla cast a glance up at the auditorium doors. Neither girl was ready to go public with their relationship. The halls of Thompson High would be merciless and they would undoubtedly become the core of most gossip for some time. A select few of their friends knew, but that was all.

Marti knew what Kayla was thinking when she glanced at the doors. Anyone could come in at any moment and the stage was far too exposed for either of their tastes. Kayla took Marti's hand in hers and led her to a more secluded spot backstage before kissing Marti once more.

Neither girl was aware of how much time was passing while they were thoroughly exploring each other's dental work. They were so wrapped up in each other that they failed to notice the sound of approaching footsteps. It was the sound of a throat clearing that broke them apart. Kayla and Marti found themselves staring up at the face of their principal. The both suppressed a groan at being caught by the absolute worst person to get caught by.

Principal Lassiter had been uptight when Casey and Derek attended Thompson High. Casey had never managed to get into his good graces, while Derek had eventually fallen from the principal's good graces and taken his rightful place as the administration's most wanted, much to Casey's delight. Unfortunately, Principal Lassiter had assumed that both Lizzie and Edwin would be carbon copies of their siblings and immediately had it in for them as well. By the time Marti became one of his students, she'd had the reputations of four of her siblings working against her and had no hope of getting into his good graces. Instead of antagonizing him like Derek and Edwin did, she chose to stay out of his way.

Lassiter was also known for his intense dislike of same-sex couples. It was unlikely that Lassiter would bat an eyelash at a guy and a girl groping each other against the lockers. School rules forbade him from punishing a same-sex couple for that reason alone, but if they were caught breaking any rule, he'd jump at the chance to punish them twice as harshly.

And Kayla and Marti had just handed him the ultimate Christmas present. Two girls in a compromising position skipping class for the umpteenth time. They knew they were looking at some serious detention time and were already moving towards the auditorium exit when he ordered them to his office.

"Two weeks detention!" Roared George. "Two weeks!" Marti could see the anger written all over her father's face. His cheeks were flushed and he was pacing in front of her like he was still trying to figure out what to do with her.

Of course, Marti's attitude probably wasn't helping matters much at the moment either. She was slumped on the couch, a cool defiance radiating from her. It only served to infuriate her father more. Nora was keeping her distance, letting George get most of his anger out of his system.

"Don't forget suspended for the rest of the day." Added Marti smartly. In addition to her two weeks of detention, she had also been sent home for the rest of the day. She wasn't complaining about that part, it just meant that her Christmas break was going to start a few hours early. George and Nora had been called into the principal's office to come and pick up Marti and the car ride home had been quiet enough to hear a pin drop. The only sign that indicated how angry George was, was how tightly he was gripping the car's steering wheel. Tight enough to turn his knuckles stark white. Marti knew she was in for a nice long lecture once they were home.

"Now is not the time for that tone." George snapped. "You are grounded."

"What?! For how long?!"

"Indefinitely!" George shot back.

"That is so not fair!" Protested Marti. "Derek pulled way more shit when he was my age-"

"Marti! Language!" Scolded Nora.

"-and never got punished this way!" She continued, completely ignoring Nora's scolding. "While I skip one class to hang out with my girlfriend and I get grounded indefinitely! How the hell is that fair?!"

"G-g-girlfriend?" Sputtered George. "Kayla's your girlfriend?" Principal Lassiter had informed her parents that she'd been caught skipping class and making out with Kayla. Neither Nora or George had been able to hide their shock when they'd heard that their daughter was kissing a girl. Apparently, they'd been too angry to process what that meant.

"My girlfriend." Reaffirmed Marti, rising to her feet to look her father defiantly in the eye. "That's what this whole punishment is about, isn't it? You're grounding me because I was with Kayla. You don't care that I was skipping class, you're pissed off because of Kayla. You two are just like Lassiter. The only reason that bigot gave us two weeks of detention is because he's so damn narrow-minded! Look me in the eye and tell me that's not why you're grounding me!"

"Marti, that's not it at all." Nora jumped in. "You're grounded because you got caught skipping class. That's it."

"I seriously doubt that." Spat Marti.

"I don't care what you believe right now! It's the truth. Your being grounded has nothing to do with Kayla and you know it!"

"Then why are you being so unbelievably unfair?! No one else in the family got treated this way!"

"No one else in this family got suspended for three days and two weeks of detention in one day!" Yeah, in addition to being sent home for the rest of the day, Marti had also been suspended for the two days following Christmas break as well. Again, that just meant she had a longer vacation.

"I only got that because Lassiter's a fucking bigot and I'm starting to think that you are too!"

"You are so far out of line!"

"That's enough!" Screamed Nora. She'd had to yell as loudly as she could to be heard over George and Marti's voices, which had been consistently increasing in volume for the duration of their argument. The loud outburst was so unexpected from her that both George and Marti jerked their heads to look at her. "You both need to cool down. George, go outside and take a walk."

"It's December!" He protested.

"Go for a drive then. Just get out of the house for an hour to clear your head and start thinking rationally." Reluctantly, he grabbed his keys and jacket and left the house.

"Thanks Nora." Said Marti wearily, collapsing back onto the couch.

"Don't thank me yet. You're still grounded. But I'll see if I can get your sentence reduced to a few days. Think you can handle that?"

"I guess." Sighed Marti.

"Good. Now, you wanna talk to me? How long has this Kayla thing been going on?"

"Since September." She reluctantly admitted.

"How long were you going to hide it from us?"

"Until I was ready to tell you. I didn't exactly have a choice in the matter today."

"No, I guess you didn't, did you?" Agreed Nora. "I hope you don't think for a second that I'm mad that you and Kayla are together."

"Can you blame me with the way Dad reacted?" Retorted Marti, still angry about their argument.

"He'll calm down. You remember how mad he'd get when Derek or Edwin landed in the principal's office."

"Did either of them get caught skipping class with their boyfriends?" At Nora's silent stare, Marti answered her own question. "No, didn't think so. Look, I'm gonna go to my room. I really don't want to be here for round two when dad gets back."

"That's probably a good idea. Just to be on the safe side." Agreed Nora.

Marti pushed herself off the couch and ran up the stairs. Halfway up she turned back around. "Nora? Can we keep this between the three of us for now?" Marti certainly hadn't been ready to confide anything in her parents about her relationship with Kayla so she was still reeling from the fact that they knew. She wasn't sure if she could handle four more people finding out just yet.

"Of course." Agreed Nora.

As she closed her bedroom door behind her and flopped down on her bed, one more thing occurred to her. She and Kayla could hang out at her house and not have to worry about who might walk in on them and blow their secret. They wouldn't have to sneak around as much. As far as most people in their lives were concerned, Marti and Kayla were best friends, but nothing more. If they wanted a moment together, they'd have to wait until either of their houses were empty or drive to somewhere half an hour away where they could be sure they wouldn't run into anyone from school. Now, they could have as many moments as they wanted at Marti's house, no longer having to jump at the slightest sound that could have indicated that her parents were home. Even if the events of the day hadn't completely sunk in yet, and even though she was still fighting with her dad, she was beginning to see the silver lining.

--

**Author's Notes**

1) Chapter titles belongs to The Stone Temple Pilots. The other title I was considering was "I Don't Wanna Stop", which is a song by Ozzy Osbourne.

2) Sorry that it took me so long to get this out. I am one of those authors who doesn't have as much time to write as she needs. 10 more hours in a day should do it for me. Plus, Harry Potter 7 came out so I had to finish reading that first.

3) Thank you for reviewing/adding me to your favorites/alerts! You guys rock. I know you were expecting Derek and Casey in the last chapter and probably this one as well, and I'm sorry I mislead you a little. **NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE DEREK AND CASEY GOODNESS!** I'm surprised that none of you asked how they got to where there are now. Anyway, even though you didn't ask, I'm going to tell you. The next 3 chapters will be getting in to how everyone got to be in the places they're in now. I'm feeling generous/extremely guilty so I'm hoping to stretch the Derek and Casey bit into 2 chapters.

4) Go ahead and flame me for not warning you there was going to be slash involved in this fic. But I think that would give it all away, like most warnings do. I wanted to surprise you guys. Sorry if it bothers you, but I'm not changing it. (technically there's a warning in my bio that says most of my stories will include at least one same-sex relationship)

Let me know what you think! Good, bad, constructive criticism and flames all welcome (though flames may be mocked if I find them utterly ridiculous)


	4. What Is And What Should Never Be

Chapter Four: What Is And What Should Never Be

**Author's Note:** Wow, so I hadn't actually realized how long it's been since I've actually updated this thing. A little over a year. Oops, sorry about that guys. I swear I didn't forget. Life just got a little crazy. I was going to school full time, which involved me having to drive half an hour to other high schools to observe their teachers for 45 hours a semester, I had to do lots of application paperwork for student teaching and travel abroad, and I was teaching 1st graders Spanish. In addition to that I'm also a workaholic so when I wasn't in school, I was working at least 20 hours a weekend.

Once again I don't own the title. It's belongs to Led Zeppelin this time around.

But all that aside, onto Chapter 4!

--

**What Is And What Should Never Be**

The first year of university had been a complete and total shock for both Casey and Derek. Neither of them had found what they had been expecting. Casey had an idealistic view of her college experience. She'd assumed that her classes would be both interesting and challenging and that the class lectures would be stimulating and thought provoking. She envisioned her roommate becoming her best friend. She thought there would be countless nights when they would stay up just a little bit too late talking about anything and everything. Instead, she got classes that were barely more stimulating than her high school courses, most of her teachers spent the entire time talking at the students, not bothering to engage them in a discussion of any kind. And because the classes were so easy, Casey found herself with a lot of spare time to spend in her room with an utterly obnoxious roommate. The girl came home at all hours of the night, had zero respect for Casey's personal space and disrupted Casey's sleep on a regular basis by blasting her music or talking on the phone too loudly.

On the other hand, Derek had expected college to be a four year extension of high school. He thought that he would once again be worshiped as a hockey god, being able to walk onto the team and take his usual place as a starter. (He was, after all, at the university on a hockey scholarship. And they obviously wouldn't have given him one if they didn't want him to play). When he wasn't playing hockey, he fully expected to be dating a different girl every night. There was a whole dating pool of beautiful girls at university that he had yet to dive into. And those pesky classes? He figured he'd go to them once in a while (hey, professors didn't really care if you showed up) and just talk his way into their good graces on the rare occasion he made it to class. There was nothing that Derek Venturi couldn't talk his way through. Unfortunately, none of his professors had fallen for his smooth talking routine and he'd quickly figured out that he'd have to put in some actual work in his classes to remain eligible for his hockey scholarship. His other major disappointment was that he hadn't just been able to walk into a starting spot on the hockey team. Those spots were already taken by the senior players. The one bright spot was that Derek was the only freshman to earn himself a place on the team's second string. He would still be able to see some time on the ice and would most likely become a starter the following year once those seniors graduated.

But Derek and Casey weren't the only two that were in for some university surprises. The entire Venturi/MacDonald family (as well as most of Derek and Casey's friends) had been shocked when Derek and Casey announced that they'd chosen to attend the same university. After three years of Derek and Casey living in the same house and going to the same school (and at each other's throats for every second of those three years), everyone around them basically assumed they would jump at the opportunity to get away from each other.

But Derek and Casey both adamantly insisted that they wouldn't let the other person keep them from going to their desired university. Both kept insisting that they were going to a large university and that they would see each other so rarely that it would be like they were going to different schools. Casey had no desire to set foot in the hockey arena and Derek was adamant about never having to spend a minute in the library. What they hadn't counted on was that they would be right back where they started at home: Sharing a bathroom and the wall between their bedrooms.

That particular shock had come midway through summer when Casey and Derek received their housing information in the mail. They'd been appalled to realize that they were living in the same dorm and on the same floor on top of that. Neither of them was willing to admit that their rooms would be right next to each other, despite the fact that the room numbers were only one apart. Derek reasoned that they probably separated the guys and girls and that their rooms had to be in two different parts of the floor while Casey insisted that a responsible university would never allow boys and girls to live so closely together, especially with the "raging hormones" that were so characteristic of college students.

Unfortunately, their fears were confirmed on the day they moved in. That was the day that they were forced to confront the facts that the university did, in fact, allow boys and girls to live so closely together and that their respective rooms were not in different sections of the floor. This revelation was met with a groan and a few choice curse words from Derek, a sort of strangled sounding shriek from Casey, nervous looks between George and Nora, and nothing but laughter from Edwin, Lizzie, and Marti (which was promptly followed by the three of them running back to the car out of fear at the glares shot in their direction coming from Casey and Derek).

As it turned out, sharing a bathroom with Derek in the dorms wasn't that different from sharing a bathroom with him at home. They still managed to get in each other's way, even if they were the only two people in a bathroom that was designed for a whole floor of students, which happened more often than they liked to admit since Casey worked in the library every morning before class (taking full advantage of the quiet study time she'd get since no other students were crazy and/or desperate enough to go to the library that early outside of finals week) and Derek had early morning hockey practices every day.

"Derek!" She screeched one morning, drawing out the syllables in his name like she usually did. "Would you please keep your shaving cream to yourself?" She requested after a glob of the stuff came flying at her from Derek's direction, landing on her cheek. She pointedly wiped the shaving cream off of her face and angrily shook it off of her hand into Derek's sink. The dollop made a soft plopping sound as it hit the water.

"Sorry, I slipped." Mumbled Derek through a mouthful of toothpaste, not sounding the least bit apologetic. A second later he spit out the toothpaste, narrowly missing spitting it onto Casey's hand.

"Gross, Derek! You did that on purpose!" Cried Casey, sticking her hand under the stream of water coming from the faucet in front of Derek and splashed some in his face in retaliation.

"Real mature, Case." He said dryly.

Casey let out a cry of frustration, but didn't say anything back. Instead, she finished washing her face, taking care to make sure that she got rid of all the shaving cream flung her way. When she was done with that, she grabbed her hair dryer and went to plug it into one of the outlets in the bathroom. Of course, at that exact same moment Derek decided to do the same thing.

"I was here first!" Derek declared and they both tried to plug their dryers in. It wasn't so much the fact that they both couldn't plug their hairdryers into the same outlet, it was a matter of them being able to share the same space while drying their hair.

"Oh, now who's mature?" Muttered Casey.

"Go use the other outlet." Derek grumbled, pointing to one on the wall across from them, while pulling Casey's hairdryer out of the outlet.

"It's broken." She replied, replacing the cord. "And I need to dry my hair. It'll freeze outside today."

"Oh right, because the hockey rink is so warm. You spend a few hours with wet hair in there and see how you like it."

Casey didn't bother to respond. She just turned on her hair dryer and started drying her hair. A few seconds later she heard an outraged yelp from Derek.

"What now?" She groaned, turning her dryer off to hear his answer.

"You got me in the face with the hairdryer. See how you like it." He retorted and turned the hot air from his dryer on her. Before they realized what was happening, they were in the middle of a full out hairdryer war, trying to see who could get the other person the most with the hot air from the dryer. More often than not Derek aimed for Casey's hair in an attempt to mess it up, but she usually managed to jump aside before he could do too much damage. Halfway through the fight, their cries of annoyance became laughter.

Neither of them realized they had an audience until they heard the clapping. They turned around to see Tanya standing behind them in her bathrobe and shower shoes, shower caddy by her feet. Tanya was a girl who lived on their floor a few rooms down from them. She was probably one of the nicest people on the floor and was liked by everyone.

"Anyone ever tell you that you fight like an old married couple?" She asked.

"How much of that did you see?" Asked Casey.

"Enough to see that you two fight like an old married couple." Tanya smirked and stepped into a shower stall and started the water before either Derek or Casey could reply. Though the fact that Tanya couldn't hear them over the running water still didn't stop Derek from muttering that she hadn't answered the question.

Casey and Derek quickly finished getting ready for the day. Casey gathered up all of her stuff and shot Derek a glare on her way out of the bathroom, trying to keep a straight face to show him that even though she was laughing by the end of the fight, she was still annoyed with him for getting in her way.

That was how things went for them for the majority of their first semester at university. They would continue to get in each other's way, clashing on almost a daily basis. But by the time came for them to go home for Christmas and J-term (neither had opted to take a class during the school's winter session, instead preferring an extended Christmas vacation. Or in Casey's case, an extended break from Derek because he had to go back to school for hockey practice soon after New Year's) their fights had less animosity to them. There were still times where Casey wanted to throttle Derek and plenty of instances where Derek wanted to wring Casey's neck, but those times were becoming fewer and further between by the end of the semester. And more often than not, their fights had a little bit of fun mixed in, especially if you asked their friends that lived on the same floor as Derek and Casey. Any one of them would tell you that by the end of a Derek/Casey squabble, both parties would walk away trying to suppress a large grin, a sure sign that there was more to their arguments than met the eye.

¡Leer y Responder por favor!

--

Anything beyond this point is actually meaningless. FYI.

Thanks for reading! And thanks for putting up with my lack of updates. I think I held off on updating for awhile because I wasn't happy with the way the backstory things were all getting crammed into a few chapters. For some reason I was thinking that because I only used three chapters to introduce the problems of the Venturi/MacDonald clan, I needed to explain them in three chapters as well. Then last night I realized I was crazy and could use as many chapters as I wanted to show how all the characters got to where they were in their introduction chapter.


	5. Hot For Teacher

Chapter Five: Hot For Teacher

**Hot For Teacher**

No more than a few days after Derek and Casey had returned to school to start their second semester, Derek was called into his hockey coach's office. A part of Derek was hoping that Coach Carillo was about to tell him that he'd been bumped up to a starting position, that Derek had impressed him enough that his coach was actually going to bump a senior from his position and let a lowly freshman take it. But Derek knew there wasn't a chance of that happening. There were so few games left in the season, including playoffs, that unnecessarily messing with the lineup now would be a stupid thing to do.

No, Derek had no disillusions about this meeting. He felt the butterflies in his stomach grow the closer he stepped to the office. He raised his hand to knock, but Coach Carillo happened to look out the window and see Derek there mid knock and waved him in.

"Hey, you uh, wanted to see me?" Asked Derek, slightly confused as to why Coach Carillo had called the meeting.

"Take a seat." He said, gesturing to the chair by the desk. Coach Carillo waited until Derek was seated before speaking again. When his coach opened his mouth this time, he sounded a lot less cordial. "Are you trying to get yourself kicked off the team, Venturi?"

"What? No, of course not." Sputtered Derek. He'd had no clue what this meeting was supposed to be about, but Coach Carillo asking him if he was trying to get himself thrown off the team had never even entered his mind. The hockey team was the only reason that Derek was at university in the first place. He couldn't remember doing anything to jeopardize his place on the team. He didn't go out partying till all hours of the night before practice and he certainly never drank on those nights either.

"Your grades are telling me otherwise." Coach Carillo replied, sounding disappointed. He set a letter down on the table in front of Derek. On the top left corner he recognized the university's logo and written just below that were the words "Registrar's Office." Derek knew what was in the letter without having to read it. Mainly because he'd received an identical one about a week earlier informing him of the fact that he was on academic probation due to his poor first semester grades. It also informed him that if he wasn't able to bring his grades up during the second half of the year, he would not be allowed to continue school and he would lose his hockey scholarship. He hadn't initially been worried about the letter. It was one of those things that he brushed off to deal with later. Apparently now was later.

"You know the university policy. All athletes playing for the university need to maintain a C+ average. If you can't bring your grades up, I can't let you play for this team next year. And this team will need you. I want you on my team next year. You're talented and have great leadership potential. I've seen you working with the other guys to help improve their game. You play for the good of the team, not just for yourself. And that's the kind of players I want next year. But you gotta get your grades up."

Derek had no idea that Coach Carillo thought so highly of him. Sure, he worked with some of the weaker players but he hadn't been doing that to earn points from the coach. He knew these guys were going to be out there on the ice with him eventually and didn't want them out there embarrassing him or costing him any games.

Derek really didn't know how to respond next. He could insist that he'd tried hard throughout his first semester, but that wasn't really true. He hadn't really started studying until after he'd bombed most of his midterms. That had been a shock to his system, like someone had poured ice water all over him. He hadn't been able to talk any of his professors into giving him a retake exam. After that, he'd started going to the library more often and actually tried to finish his homework on time. And oh yeah, he'd actually started consistently attending his classes. But none of that seemed like the right thing to say to his coach at the time. Instead, he just settled for promising to do better.

"I don't care what you do to get your grades up as long as it's legal. Fill your schedule with math courses if you think that'll help." Coach Carillo suggested, math being the only class that Derek had gotten an A in the previous semester. "Take advantage of the university's tutoring program."

Well, Derek already had loaded up his schedule with math and science courses. Math had been the only class that came easily to him. It was the only one that didn't require him to put in lots of hours working on homework and projects. Everything had a formula and once you learned that, the problems were a snap. He'd started doing his math homework first every night because it was the easiest to get out of the way. As for campus tutoring, he'd quickly found out that working with four different tutors was going to be impossible. There was no way he could keep four weekly appointments in addition to playing or practicing hockey and actually going to class. In addition to the time crunch, the school seemed to be in desperate need to tutors since they had, at most, two students tutoring each class, which was nowhere near enough to cover the demand for tutoring with a campus their size. And almost all of the availability in the tutors' schedules fell during his hockey practices. The university's tutoring program was definitely out. There was only one other option that he could come up with. One he definitely was not looking forward to.

He'd spent the next couple of days trying to figure out a different solution to his problem, one that he wouldn't only consider using as a last resort. Unfortunately, the only solution he'd managed to come up with by the end of the week was the glaringly obvious one he'd had all along. He needed a genius to tutor him. A genius with a flexible schedule that wouldn't force him to walk all the way to the library for tutoring.

When Derek was certain there were no other options, he steeled himself for the conversation that he was about to have (which would, no doubt, involve begging and pleading and eventually bribery).

He raised a fist to knock on Casey's door.

He came face to face with Casey's obnoxious roommate Tiffany, instead. A cloud of body spray, perfume and hair products practically suffocated him the second the door opened. Derek was unable to fight back a cough as the noxious fumes got into his lungs.

"Can you like, do that somewhere else?" Tiffany snapped. "That's so totally gross."

Derek didn't bother to respond to that. He didn't want to spend any more time near this girl than was absolutely necessary. "Is Casey here?" He asked, even though he was almost certain that she'd have invented a convenient excuse to get out of there the second Tiffany came home. And he didn't blame her.

"Nope." She replied, slamming the door in Derek's face. Normally, he'd have been pissed someone slammed a door in his face, but in Tiffany's case he was just glad to be done with her. Besides, he had a pretty good idea of where Casey was. There were only a handful of places she went to get away from Tiffany. The sign on Tanya's door said she was at class so Casey hadn't gone there and it was too cold to walk to the library unless absolutely necessary. He was willing to bet she'd grabbed a stack of books and gone to the study lounge at the end of their hallway.

When he walked in, he was rewarded with the sight of Casey studying at the table in the corner, her books spread out in front of her. She was scribbling furiously in a notebook, pausing only to highlight parts of a book.

"Thought I'd find you here." Derek said to announce his presence, not worrying about the volume of his voice since Casey was the only one in there.

"Really?" Asked Casey as Derek sat down at her table.

"Well, Tiffany answered your door and I was nearly choked to death by a cloud of hairspray." He explained.

It was fairly common knowledge that Casey got the hell out of her room when Tiffany was getting ready to go out for the night, which was basically every night. The girl refused to get ready in the bathroom or with the door open because she was afraid that someone would walk by and steal her look for the night before she could make her big entrance (which, of course, was generally ignored by most people since they couldn't stand her).

"Has anyone ever told you what a bitch your roommate is?" Quipped Derek.

"Never." Said Casey in mock seriousness. "What do you want? I know you didn't come here to complain about my roommate."

"Tell me you don't always enjoy a good roommate bashing." Said Derek, feigning hurt that Casey had assumed the only reason he'd come to see her was because he wanted something.

Despite the fact that Casey was almost always up for a few minutes of roommate bashing, she wasn't buying into Derek's act. "You have five seconds to tell me what it is that you want or I tell Tiffany that you have a crush on her." Casey threatened and was pleased to see all the color drain from Derek's face at the possibility.

"I need your help." Admitted Derek quickly. He didn't doubt that Casey would follow through with her threat. "I need to bring my grades up or I'm off the team."

"So you want me to tutor you?"

"Basically, yeah."

"What's in it for me?"

"Besides the warm fuzzy feeling of helping out your step brother?"

"Besides that, yeah." Nodded Casey. "I've got my own grades to worry about, you know? And tutoring you has gotta be a full time job."

"I'll help you with your math class." Offered Derek, ignoring her jab at him. Now was not the time to be antagonizing Casey. That was the surest way to get her to refuse.

"Really?" Asked Casey dubiously. It seemed a little ironic that Derek was offering to tutor her in exchange for her tutoring him.

"It was the only class I got an A in last semester." He reminded her. That was true, and Casey had never been the best at math. "And you've got the same class this semester with the exact same professor." He added in a last ditch attempt to persuade her.

"Alright, you've got a deal." Agreed Casey. As much as she hated to admit it, she needed Derek's help to get an A in math. There was no way she'd be able to do it on her own and she wasn't about to turn down her shot at straight A's this semester, even if it meant accepting help from Derek. "I've got Tuesday and Thursday nights free. Take it or leave it."

Derek had to admit that Casey was a phenomenal tutor. He'd been able to sail through most of his midterms with her help, earning nothing below a B-, at least a letter grade and a half higher than his midterms the semester before. He hadn't even minded setting aside his Tuesday and Thursday nights every week. At first he'd thought that spending so much time with Casey would be pure torture and he had been convinced he wouldn't last more than a few weeks with her as his tutor before he wanted to gouge his eyes out and drop out of school anyway just to get away from her. At least if the first three years of their parents' marriage had been any indication.

But that hadn't been the case at all. Derek actually liked being tutored by Casey. She somehow made it fun. Half way through their first session, they were both laughing so hard that tears were streaming down their faces. Soon after that, Derek actually began to look forward to tutoring. Through their sessions he had also learned that he and Casey had a lot more in common than either of them ever would have thought.

The first few times that Derek had shown up for a tutoring session, Casey had been listening to one of her "girlie CDs" (otherwise known as Broadway soundtracks and girl bands, according to Derek) that she'd quickly turned off when Derek walked in. So when Derek showed up sometime during their third or fourth week of tutoring, that's what he'd been expecting again. What he heard, on the other hand, was one of his favorite bands coming from her speakers.

"You're listening to Stone Temple Pilots?" He asked her, too surprised to say anything more intelligent.

"I'll turn it off in a second. Just let me get this printed first." She said as she clicked a few buttons on her computer screen.

"Leave it on." He shrugged. "It's a good song." He admitted, moving to turn the volume on her CD player up a few notches. Actually, "Creep" was one of his favorite songs by the Stone Temple Pilots, but it felt weird admitting that to Casey.

It took them a lot longer to get into tutoring that night. Instead, they'd figured out that they both also liked Green Day, 10 Years, and Alice In Chains (the latter truly impressing Casey because most of her other friends looked at her blankly when she first mentioned them). As it turned out, they were both also fans of the TV show Heroes, which led to Casey complaining that because of Tiffany she usually wound up missing it and had to watch online. Before he really realized what he was saying, Derek was inviting Casey to come over to his room to watch it whenever she wanted—something she took advantage of quite frequently after that.

Derek had also been ecstatic to learn that the vindictiveness that Casey had shown him in high school was now directed at Tiffany. If living with Tiffany was as hellish as it had been living with him (and Derek suspected it was), Derek didn't blame Casey one bit. Looking back at all the stunts he'd pulling with her, he was honestly surprised that Casey hadn't killed him.

One evening, they'd arrived back in Casey's room for one of their tutoring sessions just in time to hear the answering machine kick in with Tiffany's shrill voice on the other end.

"Casey, I lost my cell phone somewhere in the room and I need it. Find it for me." And without even a please or a thank you, Tiffany hung up the phone.

"Ungrateful little bitch, isn't she?" Commented Derek. "I don't know how you put up with her."

"Oh, I've found ways of dealing with her." Said Casey calmly, setting her backpack down next to her desk. "She almost makes it too easy for me." said Casey while deftly pulling a cell phone out of Tiffany's pile of dirty laundry, and holding it up for Derek to see.

"How'd you know it'd be there?" Asked Derek, only half shocked that Casey was actually going to help her roommate. Casey was the type of do-gooder that would help anyone whenever they'd need it, even if they hadn't asked for, or wanted, her help.

"I put it there last night when one of Tiffany's friends kept calling her at four in the morning. Of course she slept through it." Said Casey, grinning a little bit. Derek was devious enough to see why Casey had hidden it in Tiffany's stuff instead of somewhere in her own things. It gave her plausible deniability. If Tiffany were to ever come across it once Casey had hidden it, Casey could just claim it had fallen out of a pocket and Derek figured that Tiffany would be none the wiser (especially since it didn't really take much to pull one over on her).

"Nice." Nodded Derek.

"I'm not done yet." Casey informed him as she flipped open the phone and started pressing some buttons."

"What now?" Asked Derek.

"Just making sure her alarm's set for tomorrow." Shrugged Casey innocently.

"How early is the princess gonna wake up tomorrow?"

"2pm." Replied Casey, knowing that Tiffany would find that an ungodly hour to wake up at. "That way, if for some reason she does manage to make it out of bed before then, it'll at least interrupt the class she's supposed to be at." Casey calmly set the phone next to Tiffany's computer with Derek nodding his approval once again.

"Keep that up and people may actually start to believe us when we tell them we grew up in the same house." Laughed Derek, truly impressed with Casey's coping methods.

Though neither of them actually wanted to admit it to the other, they were both actually starting to enjoy the other's company. Sometime throughout the course of their tutoring sessions, they'd started hanging out together just because they wanted to. Derek had even managed to get Casey to come to his final hockey game of the season, one of the championship playoff games. Unfortunately the team lost, but Derek played one of the best games of his life, scoring his team's only two goals of the game. And both times he'd scored, his eyes had immediately found Casey in the stands cheering him on.

--

¡Leer y responder por favor!

Chapter title belongs to Van Halen.


	6. Have A Drink On Me

**Author's Note: Needless to say, it's been awhile since my last update. Sadly, though, I don't think this is even my longest gap between updates. I'm deeply sorry about that. But life, as usually, has been hectic. September-Mid December I was in Spain with limited internet and right after that I started student teaching. In addition to that, I work every weekend. Unfortunately, that means that there's little time for writing. The truly sad thing is that I had this chapter outlined way back in November and just now found the time to write it all down.**

**Chapter Title is an AC/DC song.**

Chapter Six: Have A Drink On Me

Casey collapsed onto her bed and breathed a sigh of relief. She had taken her last final that afternoon and was confident she'd done well, and considering it was her math final, that was saying something. At the beginning of the semester she'd been convinced that even passing the class was impossible, let alone actually earning a good grade. And she begrudgingly had to admit that it was all due to the help that Derek had given her in return for tutoring him in the rest of his classes. He was surprisingly patient with her and willing to take as much time as she needed to completely understand a concept. He really seemed to understand that even though math came easily to him, it was like a foreign language to her.

And to Derek's credit, he never once lorded fact that he was better at math over her, unlike in high school when all he did for a week was gloat about his higher math scores whenever they had a test. And okay, back in high school Casey would have gloated just as much, if not more, about her vastly superior grades. But these days, bragging was the last thing she wanted to do. Sometime between high school and university they'd stopped trying to one up each other and actually started trying to help each other out.

And speaking of Derek, he chose that moment to barge into her room and start digging through her closet.

Almost immediately, he started pulling things out and muttering to himself. "Too pink. Too frilly. To blah." On the last criticism, Derek pulled a white blouse out of Casey's closet and held it up for her inspection. "Burn this. Burn it now."

"What?! What the hell are you doing?" Demanded Casey in outrage, jumping up and frantically trying to pick up her discarded clothing off the floor just as quickly as Derek tossed them.

"Here. Wear this." He thrust a knee length black and pink halter dress out towards her.

"Derek Anthony Venturi! What the heck?!" She screeched in her patented Casey-screech.

"We're going out tonight."

"We are?" Asked Casey skeptically. It was true that they were getting along better, but their hanging out usually involved textbooks or watching TV.

"We are." He affirmed. "We deserve it so we're going to go to the Hockey House and we are going to enjoy our last night of freshman year. So what do you say?"

"Why are you so determined that I come with you?" Asked Casey suspiciously.

"No reason." Shrugged Derek. "Just that it's a hockey party and you're basically a hockey groupie anyway." He held the dress out to her once more.

"I am not a groupie!" She protested while eyeing the dress in front of her. She really did love it and rarely ever got the chance to wear it. And a night out did sound like a fun way to blow off some steam after a week of exhaustive studying.

"Then what would you call someone who goes to all the hockey games and parties?"

"A loyal step-sister." Casey replied hotly.

"So then what's a hockey groupie Asked Derek.

"Someone not related to a player." Laughed Casey, taking the dress from him and holding it up to herself.

"So you're coming?" Asked Derek, a hopeful note creeping into his voice.

"Fine." Casey agreed, already starting to pick through her jewelry box to find the perfect accessories.

An hour later, Derek was parking his car in the Hockey House lot, grateful that they reserved the closest parking for all teammates and not just the ones that lived at the house. Even though it was still early, the street was lined with cars at least three blocks in every direction around the house. Inside, he knew it must be crowded and sooner or later the party would be spilling out into the backyard- which didn't sound like a bad thing considering just how many people were there already.

As Casey let herself out of the car, even Derek had to admit that she looked stunning. The pink and black dress hugged every curve and her dark hair was styled somewhere just between wavy and tousled. A simple pair of pink wedged heals completed the outfit. A second later, they fell into step beside each other and started leisurely making their way inside- it was a nice night so there was no need to hurry.

The moment that they entered the house, they were greeted by an overzealous scream of "Oh my god! DEREK! You're finally here!" which was quickly followed by a delighted laugh that fell somewhere between a hyena and Fran Drescher. Both Casey and Derek whipped their heads around to see Michelle Kowalski standing at the top of the stairs, waving wildly at Derek. He plastered a fake smile on his face and weakly waved back at her. Apparently their encounter wasn't going to end there because Michelle immediately started bounding down the stairs and fighting her way through the dense crowd.

"Now that's a hockey groupie." Laughed Casey.

"No kidding!" Added one of Derek's teammates who just happened to hear their conversation. "She's been looking for you all night."

"Kill me now." Groaned Derek. Casey, being the loyal step-sister that she was, just laughed at him.

"You know, this is probably the first time you've ever _not_ wanted a girl's attention." She observed. Michelle had been flirting with him all semester. Derek had even taken her out a few times but her laugh had become so unbearable (especially when she'd started laughing at every single thing that Derek said) that he had been forced to break up with her for his and everyone else's sanity.

Whatever Derek's retort was gonna be, he didn't get the chance to say it. Michelle finally made it through the crowd.

"Hi Derek! Great party, huh?" She asked, choosing possibly the most clichéd opening line. Derek was once again happy he broke things off with her, He liked his girls to be a little more creative than that.

"I just got here." He reminded her.

"Thanks for inviting me."

"Sure." Said Derek smoothly. He figured if he didn't take control of the conversation soon, the next thing out of her mouth would be an invitation to dance. So he did the first thing that came to mind. "Where are my manners? Michelle, you've met my date, Casey MacDonald, right? She's my date." Derek wrapped an arm around Casey's waist and pulled her to him, completely ignoring the angry look that was taking over her face. He knew that he'd be getting an earful from her at the first opportunity she had. But he'd gladly take a tongue lashing from Casey over Michelle's laugh any day. He was just grateful that Casey was too nice to actually say anything in front of Michelle. She would never say anything to intentionally hurt the girl.

"Yeah, we've crossed paths before." Nodded Michelle, trying to process the "couple" in front of her.

"Nice to officially meet you." Casey stepped forward and shook Michelle's hand. When she stepped back, she "accidentally" misjudged the distance and the heel of her shoe landed on Derek's toes, causing tears to spring into his eyes. "Oh honey, I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed with just enough false sweetness in her voice for Derek to know that she'd done it on purpose.

"Why don't we go get some drinks." Suggested Derek, noticing that Michelle already had a full cup in her hand already, giving her no reason to follow them. "Have a good summer, Michelle." Derek added.

"Come on, Honey." Casey took Derek's hand and led him away. She'd been to enough parties at the Hockey House to know that drinks were always on the back deck. But instead of going towards the deck, she dragged him to the kitchen, where it was almost always easier to talk.

The second the door swung shut behind them, Casey lit into Derek.

"Date?! What stunt are you trying to pull?!" She demanded. "Never, not once, did I say I would be your _date_ to this party." She hissed.

"That's because I didn't know I'd need a date until five minutes ago!" He protested. "Look, I knew if I didn't say something she was gonna ask me to dance and then I'd be stuck with her for the rest of the night!"

"So your solution is to make _me_ be stuck with _you_ for the rest of the night?"

"Umm, yes?" asked Derek hopefully.

"Der-ek!" She screeched. "Seriously? This was the best you could come up with?"

"Obviously!" He threw his hands up to emphasize his point. "Please, Case, help me out here. I'm begging you."

"Give me a minute to think about it. Meanwhile, I'm going to go get something to drink." On her way out, she called back to Derek over her shoulder, "By the way, Michelle is in line for the bathroom and completely distracted so you should be clear for awhile."

"So does this mean you're gonna help me?" He called after her.

The only response he got was the door swinging shut, leaving him staring at it in confusion.

***

It took Casey a while to get outside to the drink table, partly because of all the weaving she had to do to get through the crowd but mostly because she kept stopping to chat with friends she'd made throughout the year. Surprisingly, a number of them were actual members of the hockey team and their girlfriends, whom she'd gotten to know at various hockey games and parties.

When she finally made it to the drinks, she grabbed a plastic cup and filled it with punch, taking a small sip of it to see just how much it had been spiked. Through past experience, she knew that the punch started out relatively tame but got stronger and stronger over time. This time, despite it being relatively early, the punch burned as she swallowed. It looked like the guys weren't going to take it easy tonight. And why should they? Finals were over for the year and most people were going home the next day. If ever there was a time to live it up, tonight was it.

She was about to go say hello to another group of friends when she spotted Josh Abrams coming toward her. She looked around for an escape but, Josh had already locked eyes with her so she knew she'd have to make small talk with him for a few minutes. She had dated Josh briefly during the semester, but she'd broken things off when she found out that he'd stolen an old term paper off of her computer and turned it in as his own. He hadn't even had the decency to be ashamed of his cheating or to apologize to her.

"Lookin' hot tonight, Case." He said, letting eyes leisurely travel up and down her body. For the first time all night, she felt uncomfortable in what she was wearing. She crossed an arm over her body and turned to the side to better obstruct his view. "Come dance with me."

"No thank you." Replied Casey politely, hoping that he'd leave her alone. When she dumped him, she'd made it perfectly clear that she never wanted to speak to him again.

Instead of taking no for an answer, he reached out and grabbed her free hand, trying to pull her with him. The unexpected movement caused her to stumble and nearly spill the punch in her cup. "Come on, just one dance."

"I believe she told you no." Said Derek, suddenly materializing behind Casey, probably having seen the whole thing between her and Josh. She had never been happier to see her step-brother before in her life. She didn't even complain when he wrapped an arm around her waist and planted a kiss on her cheek and said "sorry I didn't get here sooner, Babe."

Even though he needed to cheat on term papers, Josh wasn't a complete idiot and took Derek's arrival as his cue to leave. Neither Casey or Derek bothered to say goodbye to him. Casey was too busy downing her cup of punch and Derek was too busy watching her do it.

"Whoa, take it easy." He said as she went to fill it up again. "There's already like four kinds of alcohol in there."

"I know. But if we're gonna do this fake date thing tonight, I'm gonna need a few drinks." She replied. She knew that Josh would leave her alone if he thought she was with Derek but the minute that he thought something was fishy, he'd be right back there asking her to dance. The same went for Michelle. If either of them wanted to be left alone, they were stuck with each other.

"Fair enough." Agreed Derek, reaching for his own cup of punch.

For the rest of the night they played up the couple charade. They stuck by each other as they made their rounds through the party, trying to get in a final goodbye to as many of their friends as possible, all the while trying to look as couply as possible. Derek found excuses to wrap his arm around her and pull her closer to him and Casey found it relatively easy to relax into him when he did that. Once or twice throughout the night, whenever Derek left to go refill their drinks he kissed the top of Casey's head and once or twice throughout the night, when Derek came back from refilling their drinks, Casey put her own arm around his waist and possibly slipped her hand into his back pocket.

To anyone looking on, they were a real couple, always finding excuses to touch each other. Anyone who didn't know them would say that it looked like Derek was trying to prolong their physical contact before he had to leave and that Casey was so eager to reestablish their touching the moment that he got back that she pulled him as close to her as possible.

***

Hours later, they stumbled up the stairs to their rooms, laughing like crazy. Somewhere between the fifth and seventh drinks, Casey had forgotten why she was angry with Derek and just started enjoying hanging out with him and around the same time he'd forgotten that all their touching and couply stuff was just an act. At some point during their walk home, Casey's shoes had ended up in Derek's hands and they'd started trading stories from high school, making them laugh even more.

"Seriously?! You never knew?" Gasped Casey as they reached the top of the stairs.

"Oh, you're one to talk." He shot back at her, feeling the need to defend himself. "You dated him!"

"How do you think I found out Sam's gay in the first place!" Laughed Casey. "He seriously never told you? You had to find out on facebook like the rest of his friends?" Sam had quickly decided that after telling his family, it was too much work to come out to all of his friends individually so he'd simply put it in a facebook status and was done with it.

Right about the time Derek wound up with Casey's shoes, their conversation turned to their friends in high school. Specifically Sam and his outing (who knew why). In her drunken state, Casey found it extremely hilarious that she'd found out Sam was gay when they were fifteen (mere months after meeting him) and that Derek, his best friend since first grade, had to find out along with the rest of their friends after going off to college (which she had already felt the need to point out to Derek).

When they reached their bedroom doors, Derek was oh-so-pleased to see that their was a tie on his doorknob, indicating that his roommate was entertaining a guest. That was the last thing that Derek wanted that night. He was tired and the room was about three minutes away from spinning and he wanted to be in bed and passed out before that actually happened.

"And I told him I'd be home tonight, too." Groaned Derek, gesturing to the tie.

"Just sleep in my room like usual." Offered Casey. This was certainly not the first time either of them had been sexiled from their rooms by their respective roommates. Early on, realizing that this would be a recurring situation, they'd agreed to let the other sleep in their room when needed. Luckily they'd never run into a situation where both were sexiled at the same time- poor Tanya would probably wind up with two extra roommates for the night, then. "Tiffany moved out already." She added.

"Yeah, okay." He agreed. He could pass out in Casey's room just as easily as in his own. "Would you hurry up and find your keys already?" He was getting impatient and she'd been digging in her purse ever since they got to their doors. The purse wasn't even that big. "You can't possibly have that much stuff in there."

"Oh yeah?" She asked and then proceeded to sit down on the floor and dump the entire contents of her purse onto the floor.

What Derek saw literally defied the laws of physics. He sat down across from her and started picking through the pile of stuff, hoping to unearth her keys. She had a small makeup counter's worth of products in there along with her ID, hand lotion, hand sanitizer, tissues, extra change, her phone, a nail file and a flash drive, but her keys had to still be buried under the dozen other things she had in there.

At that moment Derek's phone rang. He checked the caller ID and sent it straight to voicemail. "Michelle." He explained when Casey raised her eyebrow.

"Why can't you ever stay with a girl for more than two minutes?" She suddenly asked him.

"Found you keys." He announced nervously, trying to avoid the question. Naturally they were the last thing he found after digging to the bottom of the pile on the floor, meaning they were probably right on top of everything before she dumped her purse out.

Before Casey could say anything else, she yawned and Derek took advantage of the distraction to deflect her question even more. "Let's get you to bed." He stood up and reached a hand down to help her up. In his drunkenness, he misjudged the force he needed and pulled her up way too hard, sending her crashing into him and the two of them crashing into the door behind them, just barely missing the doorknob. She laughed nervously as she realized just how close they actually were. He had to realized it too. Had to realize just how closely they were pressed together. But neither of them seemed in too much of a hurry to move, either.

"You never answered my question." Casey reminded him.

"Because I can know in two minutes if there's anything there between us or not. Usually there's not."

"How?"

"Like it says in that song, it's all in the kiss." He told her, trying not to think about how close they were and how good she looked. She'd looked stunning earlier that night when she'd met him downstairs but now she just looked downright sexy with her hair messed up from the windy walk home and her smudged eye makeup. And damn did her lips look so kissable right there.

And little did he know that she was thinking the exact same thing that he was. Casey couldn't help but notice how good he looked in his dark jeans and leather jacket. He'd let his hair grow out a little over the year and she wondered what it would be like to run her hands through it (the shoes in her hands were the only thing stopping her right now). He'd kissed her on the forehead countless times that night and every time she'd briefly wondered what those lips would feel like against her own.

She wasn't sure if she moved or if he did, but somehow their faces got even closer together. One little kiss wouldn't hurt, would it? Like he said, there usually wasn't anything there anyway so it wouldn't mean anything. It wouldn't hurt to kiss her, then he could move on instead of constantly having to remind himself that she was his step-sister. One little kiss could fix everything.

But neither got to figure out the answers to their questions that night. Right as they were about to close the remaining distance between them, a door slammed from somewhere down the hall, breaking whatever spell they had been under.

**Author's Note: You didn't really think I'd make it that easy for them, did you?**

**Needless to say, it's un-betaed. Feel free to point out any mistakes you see. Most of this was written late at night with a fever while medicated. If that's not a terrible/wonderful combination for writing, I don't know what is. If something is really off, let me know!**

**Thanks to my everyone for sticking with this story with such infrequent updates. The good news is that I have about 12 chapters outlined so they will be coming eventually. I don't leave things unfinished so they will be written eventually. On the bright side, this is my longest chapter to date!**


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